english language essay

Teaching English To Speakers Of Other Languages English Language Essay

Published: 23, March 2015

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In this intriguing, uncompromising book Adrian Holliday aims to show how a dominant 'native-speakerist' attitude which involves a culturalist, essentialist philosophy has contaminated Western TESOL. Native-speakerism divides the TESOL world into 'us' and 'them'. Its ill-effects, argues Holliday, are evident in ideology and approach to teaching, in method and materials, and in management style. Moreover, native-speakerism has the potential to pervade TESOL practice wherever English-speaking Western TESOL educators have an influence. In this respect the book continues an established critical tradition which views native speakers as an obstacle to the development of English as an International Language. In contrast Holliday posits as preferable an ideal 'position 2'. This position sees no distinction between 'us' and 'them'. Because of global changes in TESOL and the English-speaking world, we (inclusively) need to learn to adopt this second position. This means that we view English as international, geographically unshackling the language from the English-speaking West. In other words, English belongs to all, and local contexts of use become the norm.

This book contains eight chapters, debating the obstacles of the educators in language learning and teaching English as an international language throughout social and political issues in diverse international location. Moreover, the main discussion of this book is an equality of power in classroom, and curriculum settings, the relationship between language, culture, and discourse. The first two chapters (1 and 2) outline the argument between the native-speakerist stance and position 2, and provide an ideological backdrop to the rest of the book. Throughout Holliday place 'native speaker' and 'non-native speaker' in inverted commas to show that the use of 'non-' usually signifies a disadvantages or deficit. Braine (1999: xv, citing Kramsch) suggests that 'native speakers' themselves 'do not speak the idealized, standardized version of their language' any more than 'non-native speakers', that both groups are influenced in their speech 'by geography, occupation, age, and social status'. There are two points (Two Positions, from native-speakerism to position 2) discussing by Holliday in the table 1.1. It summarized what he believe to be the major feature of native-speakerism, or Position 1, and how Holliday conceptualize a movement towards a more mutually inclusive identity in Position 2. Native-speakerism is presented as the more traditional way of thinking, and Position 2 is presented as the new way of seeing TESOL. It is the position in which We find ourselves as a result of new ways of seeing and understanding, which may in turn be influenced by new realizations, structures, or alignment.

In Chapters 3 and 4 are extended critiques of learner-centredness and learner autonomy, as they exist in the English-dominant West, and as they grew out of audiolingualism and communicative approaches. The basic difference between TESOL approach and Education is that the TESOL approach is more psycholinguistic whereas the education approach is more sociological. Moreover, in an argument for learner-centredness, the critique of teachers-frontedness is highly conventionalized teacher-student interaction in TESOL approach; however, in sociological (education approach) lack of respect showed by teachers, and students are grouped for disciplinary control as existing in the English-dominant West. Furthermore, the learner-centredness and learner autonomy approach have developed into another powerful approach, audiolingualism, which language learning was thought to depend on habits that could be established by repetition. As a replacement for the audiolingualism approach, communicative approach is a broad approach to teaching that resulted from a focus on communication as the organizing principle for teaching rather than a focus on mastery of the grammatical system of the language.

Chapter 5 puts forward arguments for a 'Position 2' approach to autonomy which is social and/or collective. In Position 2, where there is a struggle to make new, inclusive relationships, activities, interactions, and texts are authentic when they are meaningful to the social worlds of the students, teachers and other parties who are involved. Thus authenticity and autonomy interact in the sense that, to be authentic, activities, interactions, and texts need to communicate with the same social world within students are already autonomous in their own terms (Holliday, p. 104).

Additionally, in the final three chapters (6, 7 and 8) deal with the world of teachers in teaching English as an international language: stakeholder-centredness, critiquing appropriate methodology, and the struggle for cultural continuity. An essentialist view of culture has been central to matrix thinking as means for trying to understand the foreign other who needs to be 'included' and 'integrated' into the framework. Smith (1995), like so many commentators, puts 'cultural' at the top of his list of 'obstacles' to this intently humanitarian aim-what he says about Cambodians falls within the illusion of the generalized. His analysis of the dominant communicative methodology is not so much that it is 'native-speakerist' in its essence, but that it has elements of 'native-speakerism' in it that we should, by reflection and self-criticism, rid ourselves of. The book is a general call-to-arms to those who would make a new matrix, a new world order, a more inclusive TESOL world (Thomas Leverett, 2006).

Showing in the reality, this book is a good message to distinguish and give a clear picture of what most of the countries have a strong belief to Western TESOL and in other countries that use English as an international language, like in Cambodia. Throughout this claim, it does not mean that only native-speaker who can teach English to students in the class more effectively, professionalism and being a good teacher. Non-native speaker, teacher of English, can also become a good teacher, professionalism because he/ she can use and adapt more methods in teaching to students in the classroom depending on cultural learning and teaching, language and discourse that some native never can. Holliday tries to compare any problems that may happen or occurred in field of linguistics and teaching English into difference parts of the world, and this book can be considered as an appropriate and useful document for curriculum-developers, lecturers, graduate students who already have the knowledge in the field of linguistic and education.

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